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California Fires Reignite Forest Thinning Debate
From Fox... EFL and Fair Use
By Steven Milloy
Posted on behalf of Frank G and the other Rantburgers affected by the recent fires — and the fact that some jihadi had suggested recently that they should take credit for them...

"Our forests are detonating like napalm bombs. We need to remove dead and dying bug-killed timber," said Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif.

Is this Monday-morning quarterbacking spurred by the wildfires now raging in California? Hardly. Rep. Herger uttered those words in August 1994 as part of his demand that Congress declare a state of emergency in federal forests to permit quick removal of dead trees, fallen branches and other debris that fuel wildfires — like those that burned 3 million Western acres and killed 14 firefighters that year. A spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council responded at the time by calling Rep. Herger’s demand “a pretext for accelerated logging in the Sierra Nevada.”
The usual response. Actually, they don't care so much about the logging as people making money from it...
Nine years later, though, Rep. Herger’s demand is looking pretty prescient. Over 700,000 acres have burned so far this year in California alone, along with the loss of 20 lives and more than 2,600 homes destroyed. Last year, wildfires burned nearly 7 million acres, killed 23 firefighters, destroyed more than 800 homes and cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion.
I'd say Herger's vindicated...
So what do the environmentalists have to say? A spokesperson for the Natural Resources Defense Council called President Bush’s proposed plan to prevent forest fires by thinning excess growth “a Trojan horse” for sneaking through logging projects.
Still clueless after all these years...
Notice they attack the motives, rather than the proposal?
As the Western forests burn — and people die and homes are destroyed — environmentalists and their political allies in Congress only seem concerned that some “old growth” trees may be cut in the process of thinning the nation’s tinder traps. Their nonsensical opposition to thinning only makes it easier for wildfires to spread out of control. That’s positively cuckoo.
...More...
EcoPolitics: where green and greed are reversed.
Posted by: .com 2003-11-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=20678